New
by B00k Freak
Summary: After being friends and partners for so many years, Coulson and May thought there was nothing more to learn about each other. They were wrong.
1. Snoring

**a.n. This first chapter is like, finale adjacent, since I started it pre-finale**

It was really easy to love Melinda May. Coulson had learned that very early in their relationship when he almost immediately developed a massive crush. Back then that was all it had been. A crush, because she was funny and beautiful and could kick his ass without breaking a sweat.

He'd gotten over that little crush eventually, and they were good friends. Great friends. Over the years they had been through so much together, helped each other through their worst times and celebrated their best. Along the way they had learned everything about each other. Favourite foods, their little rituals when they needed to relax or psych themselves up for a mission, how to tell when they needed someone there for them and when they needed to be alone.

Phil had, somewhat naively, thought he knew everything there was to know about his partner, even as that decades old crush had resurfaced. He realised very quickly that it was way more than a crush. Phil knew he was a romantic but the way his stomach swooped when she looked at him and how he felt like he would do anything to see her smile... well. It was Melinda. After everything that had been through it was never just going to be a crush. Not now.

It wasn't until she had cornered him in that hallway that Coulson realised something he hadn't known about Melinda May. That she loved him too.

On some level Phil thought that was it. The final piece of the puzzle for both of them. Now they were together, and there was nothing else left to learn.

Neither of them had the energy for conversation after their mission. Neither of them really had the energy for anything. They trailed back through the halls of the Lighthouse alone, relieved to have saved Coulson's life, but exhausted.

Phil hesitated when he opened his door, noting that May had stopped walking. He swallowed. "I-I know that this is all... new, and I don't want to overstep, I just-"

He was interrupted by May walking past him into his room, kicking off her boots at the door.

Despite everything, Phil smiled. "I've got some old T-shirts in the bottom drawer."

"I know."

Even though they were technically together now, Phil flushed bright red when May started to pull of her own shirt to change into one of his old ones and he immediately turned to look at the wall.

He would swear he could _hear_ her smirking at him. "It's not like you haven't seen it before Phil."

He flushed further, fiddling with his robot hand. "I know, it's just... it's different now."

Melinda circled to stand in front of him, standing on tiptoe to kiss him. "It is." She murmured. "That's a good thing."

Phil smiled down at her. "I know. Just give me a little time to get used to it without making fun of me too much."

The way her grin turned wicked and her eyes narrowed made him realise she would do no such thing, and Phil couldn't resist the urge to pull her into his arms for another kiss, which was broken after several seconds when he yawned.

May laughed against him. "Get changed." She said, grabbing for the boxers on his bed and throwing them at him.

Phil shook his head, reluctantly freeing himself from their embrace. "Yes ma'am."

He could feel her eyes on him as he changed, but did his best to ignore the self-conscious feeling her gaze elicited. When his hands reached for the buttons of his shirt, Phil hesitated. He had barely looked since being cured. It had been a long time since he hadn't looked down and seen that black network of scars across his chest. Coulson didn't notice May's approach until her hands were placed over his.

He looked at her and saw that same uncertainty. "It's okay." She said quietly. "We're okay."

Phil nodded haltingly, willing his hands to stop shaking as he began to unbutton his shirt.

Part of him didn't believe it when the scars weren't there. The only one that remained was the scar from his original injury. The one he had previously thought of as large and twisted and horrifying, but which now seemed laughably small. Phil let out a shaky sigh, his hands dropping to his sides.

May swallowed in an attempt to hide her own nerves. "Told you." She joked weakly.

Phil looked up to meet her eyes and smiled. "I love you." He murmured. It felt like relief. It felt normal to the point that he didn't even question it until he saw the affectionate look that took over Melinda's face, a smile tugging at her lips. The vulnerability to her puzzled him for a moment before he realised.

That was the first time he had said it.

He leaned down to kiss her again. "I love you." Phil repeated. "I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner."

May shook her head. "It's okay." She mumbled. "You've got plenty of time to make up for it. For now let's just sleep."

"Copy that." He said, and the two collapsed onto his bed, Phil barely having the presence of mind to remove his hand and mutter the command to turn off the lights before they fell asleep.

Phil woke slowly, his exhaustion and the darkness of the room beckoning him to sleep more. He was warm and he was comfortable, but something was pulling him out of his well-earned rest. A quiet sound.

He blinked his eyes blearily to get his bearings. His chest still hurt a little from the scars, but not enough to wake him. After a moment, his eyes fixed on May's form in the darkness.

She was curled up slightly on her side, one half of her face mashed into his pillow. Her hair was more than a little mussed, and she looked more innocent and unguarded that Phil had ever seen.

And she was snoring.

Phil bit his lip to keep from laughing at the realisation. No matter how exhausted, he knew that would wake her. She wasn't even snoring that badly, not really. Just a quiet, unmistakable noise in the back of her throat that Phil couldn't help but find incredibly endearing.

He rolled onto his side to face her, smiling. A lot of weird and unbelievable things had happened in the last few months, but by far the most surprising and welcome of them was Melinda May loving him. Her wanting this, her kissing him back on that spaceship and again almost every time they had been alone since.

She was so cute in that moment that all he wanted to do was wrap her up in his arms and pepper kisses all over her face. To tell her he loved her a million times so that she might have some idea how he felt.

But she was sleeping, and Phil was loath to wake her. Instead he lay there and watched her, letting the sound of May's quiet snoring soothe him back to sleep.

Melinda May usually woke up suddenly. She had her internal clock, and she almost always followed it, waking promptly at five every morning for training. That was her routine, but after a mission, especially a mission like _this,_ she had become more forgiving of herself for sleeping in. Maybe Daisy had just been rubbing off on her, maybe she was getting old, but she excused herself from training if she had been on an intense mission the day before.

Her mother would be disgusted, but then again her mother had never saved the world. At least as far as she knew.

So that morning she woke gradually, that quiet calming voice inside willing her to keep her eyes closed a little longer, the soft material of Phil's shirt against her skin more comforting than she would care to admit.

May could feel a little itch though, which she knew meant she was being watched. Probably Phil. Definitely Phil, at least it had better be.

She let herself open her eyes slowly, eyelids fluttering in a way they rarely did, squirming and stretching her unusually sore muscles. When her eyes cleared, it was to see Phil smiling at her in an oddly familiar way. "What?"

"Morning." He smiled, brushing a stray strand of hair out of her face.

May blinked at him, still getting her bearings. "Morning." His touch was so gentle and affectionate that it was hard not to melt. Hell, maybe it would be okay to melt right now. No. He still had that knowing grin on his face that said he knew something she didn't. "What are you smiling about?"

His smile widened. "What, I'm not allowed to be happy to wake up next to the woman I love?"

Her stomach fluttered at the words and May felt a flush climbing her neck, grateful for the millionth time that it almost never showed. Still, she knew him. That was a dodge, and a weak one at that. "Phil."

He chuckled. "You snore."

Melinda sat up abruptly, her eyes narrowing. "Take that back."

Phil laughed and she refused to be happy about it. "You do though."

"I do _not._ "

He had that smug look on his face that made her want to either punch him or kiss him. "Only a little." Phil grinned. "Don't worry, it's cute."

Even May was impressed at how much the sound that came out of her resembled a growl. "Take that _back._ "

Phil snorted. "You've got bed-head and you're wearing one of my old T-shirts, you can't really pull of the scary look right now."

She swiftly pinned him to the bed. "I don't need a look to be scary."

Phil grinned up at her. "I love you." He murmured, pressing a quick kiss to her lips before she could see it coming. "Especially when you snore."

May glared. "You'll pay for that."

"I look forward to it."

 **a.n. OKAY, so this is gonna be an ongoing thing, mostly short little fic bits. If you have any prompts for this I'd love to take them but they have to follow two rules;  
1) No smut. Writing sex scenes really squicks me so I'm just not gonna do it.  
2) It has to be something they feasibly don't already know about each other. May knows Coulson likes to cook, he knows she doesn't like coffee.**


	2. Glasses

Quiet afternoons had been hard to come by in recent years. Between missions, superpowers, the end of the world, and being on the run from every other intelligence agency on the planet, none of them had much time to relax, least of all Coulson and May.

It was different now. The world was saved, they weren't being hunted, and Daisy was in charge, Phil acting as her advisor. So he had started taking to reading Ulysses on quiet afternoons, at first to avoid obsessing, but quickly found he enjoyed it. Especially when May had started joining him.

Phil had never considered himself as one for quiet companionship. He liked the idea, but more often than not he found himself rambling about something or other or feeling uncomfortable because he thought he _should_ say something. Maybe he was just getting old, but it felt different now.

Melinda didn't always read. Sometimes she tried meditating, which Phil knew she was far less adept at than tai chi, or typing reports for Daisy on a tablet. It was far from intimate in the traditional sense, sometimes they didn't even sit on the same couch, but it was peaceful and Phil felt content like he hadn't in years.

Content, and very aware of the pair of eyes surreptitiously watching him.

He looked up for the third time that afternoon and caught May looking at him again, her face tinged with curiosity and something else he couldn't quite identify. He sighed and smiled. "What?" All the staring was starting to get to him.

As she had the other times he had questioned her, Melinda only shook her head with a slight grin, looking away.

Phil rolled his eyes. " _What?"_ He asked again, moving to sit beside her on the couch.

May wasn't looking at him. If Phil didn't know better he would say something was bothering her. "You don't usually wear your glasses."

Phil frowned and slipped them off. "They just make it easier to read."

"But normally you wear contacts."

He raised an eyebrow. It wasn't like May to fixate on something so small. "Yeah. It's hard to run around on a mission when my glasses could fall off." He sighed and leaned back on the couch. "Besides, I've never liked how I look wearing these. I'm nerdy enough without them." She looked up at him just as he slipped the glasses back on. "Why do you ask?"

Melinda wet her lips and before Phil could say anything else, question the hungry look in her eyes, she shoved him down onto the couch and straddled his hips and suddenly her lips were on his, her hands everywhere and Phil lost the ability to think when she nipped at his bottom lip and snaked one hand under his shirt.

He responded more slowly than he'd have liked, letting one hand sink into her hair and the other wrap around her waist, pulling her body ever closer against his.

Phil's train of thought remained stalled until they broke apart for air, both gasping and flushed. When his vision refocused it was to see Melinda looking down at him, her breath still short, tickling his face, and her eyes hooded.

His glasses had fallen down his nose, and when Phil noticed them he managed a grin. "I take it you like the glasses?"

May huffed a laugh. "You could say that."

Phil chuckled and leaned up to kiss her again. "I'll keep it in mind."

Despite their decades of training, neither of them noticed the footsteps coming down the hall until they stopped in the doorway, being replaced with a mortified voice. "Oh my _God._ "

Phil and Melinda looked up just in time to see Daisy's hands covering her face as she abruptly turned to leave.

May bit her lip to keep from laughing, but Phil had the good grace to shout. "Sorry Daisy!" as she disappeared.

He wanted to be embarrassed, he really did, but Melinda was grinning and they were together and he loved her so much, and all Coulson could do was laugh quietly. "I should buy her a pizza or something to apologise."

May snorted. "If you do that every time she walks in on us she'll be having pizza for every meal of the day."

"Or we could just be more careful about doing this where she could walk in."

"Please."


	3. Cuddly

Phil didn't question it at first. He knew how close they had come to losing each other, just as they had started getting going. Before he had even had the courage to tell Melinda he loved her. If there was one thing that made him want to live, it was the knowledge of how much it would hurt her if he did.

So when May was a lot clingier than usual, he didn't say anything. Didn't push her away; he had promised himself he would never do that. He liked them being close, but Phil knew that May wasn't the most tactile of people, at least not usually.

Still, after a few weeks he started to find it odd. How they would go to sleep side by side but on the off chance he woke before her, he would find May cuddled up to him. How she would get close enough that he could feel her breathing when they sat together, how any time he so much as wrapped an arm around her she would curl into his touch.

What finally clinched it was when Phil woke up and decided to stay like this for as long as he could. Melinda had one arm draped over his chest, her head nuzzled into the crook of his neck, and he felt happy in a way he hadn't in a very long time. Maybe ever.

So he wasn't going to move, and he definitely wasn't going to wake her. When she woke, Melinda would pull away. For now he was going to let this happen.

Phil kept his eyes closed and relaxed, his breathing not needing any focus to pass for sleep. He wasn't sure how long it had been when he felt Melinda begin to stir, shifting against him, and Phil prepared for the disappointment that he always felt when she pulled away from him.

But it didn't come.

Instead he felt May let out a little sigh and somehow press more of her body against his, snuggling her head against his neck.

Phil could feel her smiling against his skin. She was awake, he knew that much.

He continued to pretend for a couple of minutes, knowing how damn sappy they were both being here. Both faking sleep so that they could be close to the other for just a little longer. Eventually Phil surrendered and wrapped one arms around Melinda's waist, feeling her go still as he pulled her closer.

He let out a gentle sigh. "You know," Phil murmured. "You never seemed like the cuddly type."

Phil felt her throat work in the silence that followed and knew he had caught her off guard. In the end all Melinda said was, "Shush."

He smiled. "I like it. It's good to know I'm not the only sap."

"Phil."

He chuckled. "Sorry. No talking, got it."

May hummed and shifted to rest her head more comfortably against his chest. Phil pressed a kiss to her hair. "I love you." He murmured.

She huffed and Phil tightened the embrace with a grin. Yeah, he could get used to this.


	4. Scared

In all his years of knowing her, Phil Coulson had rarely seen May scared. When he did notice her fear, which was rare, it was something he generally thought of as a huge red flag. That if Melinda was scared of this mission or person they were facing, it meant it was bad.

After Bahrain he started to see it more. On the Bus he would catch sight of it when he saw her working out early in the mornings, her eyes just a little too red-rimmed. She had nightmares, he knew that, and whatever she saw when she slept terrified her.

He had seen her scared of losing him again, had seen her frantically trying to think of a way to get the others out of danger, had seen her after the worst flashbacks.

He hadn't ever really seen her scared of something mundane.

It really wasn't Phil's fault. Daisy had recommended _A Quiet Place_ and said it was a really good movie, and it was. Even if May's grip on the couch pillow was starting to turn white.

He wrapped a hesitant arm around her shoulders, feeling her jump. "We don't have to watch it you know." Phil whispered.

May twitched. "I'm fine." She muttered shortly.

Phil smiled, despite the events on screen, and kissed her cheek. "It's okay to be scared. I promise I won't tell."

"I'm _fine._ " May stressed, though it was undercut when a moment later there was a burst of noise from the TV and she dove into Phil's arms with a strange little noise.

He grinned fondly and stroked her hair. "I mean it, we can just turn it off."

"I can take it." May said, her voice muffled by his shirt.

Phil rolled his eyes. "Melinda this is meant to be a date, not an interrogation. You shouldn't have to _take_ it." She huffed and he laughed quietly. "I still think you're a badass."

"Hm."

"Even if you can't take scary movies."

"I can _take_ it."

"Let go of me then."

"I don't want to."

He laughed again and surreptitiously pressed the pause button while she wasn't looking. "I love you."

May snorted into his shoulder. "It's like you were saving them up the whole time you wouldn't say it."

"Mm-hm."

She swallowed. "Don't tell the others."

"Of course not." He murmured. "But you don't always have to be the tough one. You're a human being."

"I know." Melinda said in a small voice. She bit her lip, debating over whether to speak. "When I was a kid I was scared of bears."

Phil blinked in surprise, then laughed. "How practical of you."

She shrugged, drawing away a little. "Mom didn't want me going close to them if I ever saw one."

"I'm not surprised." Phil said. "I used to be scared of flying. We never went far on vacation cos my parents couldn't get me on the plane."

A smile touched May's lips. "I guess you got over that."

Phil chuckled. "Imagine telling a kid who's terrified of flying that one day he'd fall in love with a pilot."

"Or live on a plane."

"Two planes."

They both laughed, and after a moment Phil cocked his head. "Hang on, we've watched scary movies before."

May shrugged, looking down. "I usually try to tune it out. Or make up an excuse and leave." She toyed with the pillow. "When I was about twelve my mother went out on a mission last minute and there was no one left to watch me." She bit her lip. "She always told me not to watch cable, but I was so mad at her I did it anyway."

Phil groaned, seeing where this was going. "Oh no."

"I don't even remember the movie." She said. "I just remember how scared I was after. Staying up all night because I was alone in the house and I was sure that something was coming to get me."

"I bet your mom wasn't happy when she came home."

May smiled ruefully. "She knew right away. Came into my room and I was sitting on the bed with the blankets over my head and a flashlight."

Phil snorted. "I'm sorry- just... that's the cutest image."

Melinda rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

The topic didn't raise itself again until they went to bed. Until the lights were turned off and Phil was laying in the dark, and thought of a version of Melinda far smaller and more innocent than he had ever seen, clutching her blankets around herself, forcing herself to stay awake so that the monsters wouldn't get her.

The thought was so adorable and unlike her that he couldn't help but burst into a very unmanly fit of giggles.

May rolled over to face him, barely able to make him out in the dark. "What?"

"Nothing!" Phil said hurriedly, trying to muffle his laughter with his hand.

May huffed and crossed her arms and even that made him want to laugh now. "I'm sorry." Phil mumbled between fits of laughter. "Sorry- I-I can't stop."

"You wanna sleep on the couch?" She asked, trying not to sound amused. "Because you're acting like you want to sleep on the couch."

Phil snorted and pulled her into a tight embrace, laughing into her shoulder. "You- you are just the cutest thing."

May raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to give you a chance to rethink that."

Phil continued to giggle in that annoyingly infectious way. "I'm sorry- sorry!" He exclaimed, but the way he was clinging to her, the feeling of his body shaking with laughter against hers and his head on her shoulder was too much and after a few seconds May started to laugh too, which only made Phil clutch her more tightly.

Melinda shook her head. If this was the outcome of watching a movie that scared her out of her skin, maybe it was worth it.


End file.
